Macaulay lives on...

I'll start with a small tidbit from history which I am cocksure that you wouldn't have studied in your history classes.

Circa 1813 : India was ruled by the East India company. The first stone for the introduction of western education to Indians was laid. Sita Ram Goel in his book History of Hindu-Christian encounters explains the unfolding of events that led to the introduction of western education for Indians:

The renewal of East India Company’s Charter in 1813 had opened the Company’s dominions to Christian missionaries. It had also advised “introduction of useful knowledge and religious and moral improvement.” A controversy had been going on ever since regarding the system of education suitable for India. The Orientalists among the British rulers advocated retention of the traditional Indian system. They were afraid that imparting of Western knowledge to natives would encourage them to claim equality with white men and demand democratisation of the administration. The Anglicists, on the other hand, were convinced that knowledge of Western literature, philosophy and science would wean Hindus away from their “ancestral superstitions” and draw them closer to the religion and culture of the ruling race.

Christian missionaries were, by and large, with the Anglicists. One of them had written in 1822 that, through Western education, Hindus “now engaged in the degrading and polluting worship of idols shall be brought to the knowledge of true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.” Missionaries felt immensely strengthened when Alexander Duff, an ardent advocate of Western education, reached Calcutta in 1830.

Alexander Duff was convinced that “of all the systems of false religion ever fabricated by the perverse ingenuity of fallen men, Hinduism is surely the most stupendous” and that India was “the chief seat of Satan’s earthly dominion.” He studied for some time the effect which Western education was having on Hindu young men attending the Hindu College and similar institutions which had come up in Calcutta and elsewhere in Bengal since more than a decade before his arrival. He came to the definite conclusion that Western education would make the Hindus “perfect unbelievers in their own system” and “perfect believers in Christianity.” In an address delivered in 1835 to a General Church Assembly he proclaimed that knowledge of Western literature and science would “demolish the huge and hideous fabric of Hinduism” brick by brick till “the whole will be found to have crumbled into fragments.”

A Committee of Public Instruction had been set up by the Government for recommending a suitable system of education. Alexander Duff had been made a member of the Committee in 1834. Next year, T. B. Macaulay, a member of the Governor General’s Council, was appointed to preside over the Committee. He wrote a Minute on February 2, 1835, advocating Western education. There was a tie between the Anglicists and the Orientalists when the Minute came before the Committee on March 7. Macaulay used his casting vote and forced a decision. The Western system of education was adopted. In a letter written to his father in 1836, Macaulay predicated, “It is my firm belief that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolator among the respectable classes of Bengal thirty years hence.”

Macaulay argued that providing education based on Sanskrit is of no use for India’s development, and batted instead for education based on English. He (in)famously envisioned creating “a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect”. [You can find the complete minute here] He correctly identified the strength of Indians was in their tradition, heritage and spirituality. Once you make them believe all that they valued are just a baggage of hogwash, you can easily rule them. As simple as that. In a way, you can call Macaulay a visionary because what he had envisaged did turn out to be true in the future.

I am not adding his one more cardinal sin of adding racial theories which were very prevalent in Europe during 19th century to the new curriculum. Thus applied racial theories to the Indian populace were initially used by colonialists to divide and sub-divide India. This was later used by evangelical missionaries and political parties to serve their own ends. The commie historians who were to rule Indian academics post-Independent India kept this repudiated, outdated theory intact and these hoax theories are peddled even to this day.This is a big story in itself. Let's keep it for some other day.

Who should write history? This is a very serious question that one should contemplate on. Some say history is written by the winners and conquerors. This is true even in case of India. Indian history is never written from an Indian perspective. It was always written with the invaders' perspective be it Moguls or the British. That's the sole reason that we are conditioned to see the invaders as heroes or liberators. So,our history books are full of invasions, wars and subjugation. These are just the products of colonial constructs which are peddled even to this day. Anyone who is a product of this kind of education can never admire the greatness of this nation. All that he can have is contempt for it and its past. People like Vivekananda or Aurobindo are just a few honorary exceptions to come out of the kind of western education introduced by Macaulay. Even people like them, discovered the greatness of India only because they chose to go beyond what was taught to them. Else, even their intellect and perception would have been crippled.

We can see this phenomenon clearly in this country : To be called as an intellectual, you should have an absolute disdain for its heritage and you should be able to debunk it. That's one of the criteria for being a 'progressive' in this nation. The more you debunk the tradition, the more intellectual you appear. Those people who debunk even the profound things of this culture have no problem in accepting absolute trumpery of predatory cultures and religions that have invaded India. This is just a small instance to show the triumph of Macaulay's education system.

So I readily agree when someone says 15th August 1947 is just an end of physical (or administrative) slavery but mental (or intellectual) slavery continues even to this day. I think it's high time that we broke the shackles of mental slavery and came clean.

The real growth, the only goal...

I've often wondered what drives people to action. The driving force that makes people to perform a gamut of actions in the world ; from the grossest to the most profound. There are many explainations for this from psychology to sociology. The most famous one known to even a rookie in manangement studies is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Although Maslow's theory tried to explain, it fell short to explain comprehensively. Then i turned my gaze to our very own system of yoga, not to be disappointed by the explaination provided.

This article in Huffington post from Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev prompted me to write this post. Yoga considers everything as energy. It's only the manipulation that we can do about it. Even fundamental physics says the same thing. So, fundamentally it's all the same energy manifesting in a zillion different forms. If that is the case, a human being is no different from the law as after all he's a microcasm in the macrocasm called universe. 

Someone who is born and brought up in India would have at least heard of the words 'Kundalini' and 'chakra' if not known anything about them in detail. Kundalini is a very vast concept in itself. To put it succinctly, it is an enormous dormant energy waiting to get awakened. Once it gets awakened, it can do phenomenal things. But if it is mishandled, it can cause a lot of physical and psychological damage. That's why it's aptly compared to a sleeping serpent.

As the above mentioned article clearly describes, chakras are the energy centers in which the energy channels called 'nadis' meet. Though they are in the form of triangle, because they symbolize growth and movement they are called chakras (wheels). When the dormant energy Kundalini begins to arise in the human system,it rises through these chakras. As the energy gets concentrated on a particular chakra, the dominant quality of the person changes accordingly. Even though there are 114 chakras in the human system, the dominant ones are 7 in number.

The seven chakras are : Mooladhara, Swadhisthana, Manipuraka, Anahata, Vishuddhi, Agna, Sahasrar. Depending on their physical locations, we can call them as higher and lower chakras but it no way denotes anything as inferior or superior in their quality. Mooladhara is the very first chakra and is located at the base of the spine. If the enegies are dominant in this chakra, food and sleep will be predominant qualities of life. Swadhisthana is the second chakra & is located just above the genital organs. If the energies become dominant here, the person will be incessant pleasure seeker and pleasure can be seeked in many different ways.

The next chakra is Manipuraka which is located just below the navel. When the energies move here, it pushes the person towards action. And action can be of so many types. When the energy moves towards the next chakra, Anahata which is located in the heart area, it makes the person very creative. The next chakra is Vishuddhi which is located in the throat region. If energies move towards this chakra, the person becomes extremely powerful in many ways. Political power and the likes appear to be pygmies in front of this kind of power.

If the energies move towards Agna, which is located between the eyebrows the person becomes intellectually enlightened. A new kind of peace and semblance dawns upon him. The next chakra, Sahasrar which is at the crown of the head is often described as thousand petalled lotus. The word Sahasrar also implies that its magnitude and significance is very vast; in fact, unlimited. When the energies reach Sahasrar, the person becomes extremely ecstatic.

Any spiritual seeker has to embark this journey from Mooladhara to Sahasrar in his ultimate quest towards self-knowledge. There can be a million ways to reach it. The seeker can choose any way which is appropriate to his nature and temperament. Once the seeker completes his journey, he would have known everything in this universe that is worth knowing.

The usurping of Islam over any nation or society should be feared because...

Islamophobia – a term coined by the apologists of Islam when the non-Muslims express their valid fears about the usurping nature of Islam. Islam has reverse Midas touch - whatever it touches, turns into desert. As Islam is one of the most important monotheistic religions, there is a need to understand the core belief of monotheistic religions to understand Islam. Monotheistic religion doesn’t just imply devotion and belief in one god; it also implies intense hatred for the other gods and beliefs. This was true for the other monotheistic religions like Judaism and Christianity. But over a period of time, they have changed & have become less-hostile to the non-believers. But Islam, to this day remains very loyal to its source and thus hostile to all those who do not share its set of beliefs i.e Non-Muslims.

If Islam was just another religion, then the mindset that fears the rise of Islam could be easily bracketed as a phobia but it’s not as easy as it seems. It is radically different from any other religion. So, when there is a rise of Islam in any corner of the globe, it is definitely a red flag for the non-Muslims. Because the rise would always, without exception end up in a demographic seize.

Many people across the globe are beginning to realize it lately. Some are afraid to spell it out fearing it might flout their ‘political correctness’. Europe, in its mad rush towards pursuing and establishing the idea of multiculturalism gave in a lot to Islam. Now, it has started to pay the price for the blunder. It's telling a tale when Europe is slowly being transformed into 'Eurabia'. 

The problem with India with regard Islam is much more complex. Much non-sense in India has happened in the name of secularism, composite culture and multiculturalism. In India, the political class, the media, the ‘intellectuals’ and many others are in accord in protecting the interests of Muslims, most of the times - at the cost of others. The clamor for secularism will exist only as long as the Hindus remain the majority. Once the baton passes to Islam then the ideals of democracy, secularism will be laid to rest. 

The first domino to fall for the assault of Islam would be freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Freedom of speech to Islam is as alien as flying saucers to Earth. Then diversity gets the second blow. There will be no diversity at all as all will be emulating Arabs and Arabian culture. Aesthetics, Music will go for a toss because they are officially banned in Islam (Mohammad, the founder of Islam intensely disliked music). What to say of yoga and the rest of spiritual process! They will be banned as well. So, India as we know it would vanish like dust in the wind.

The Muslim majority state, even if has embraced democracy, over a period of time will be pressurized to drop democracy and to adopt shariah laws. Even if the initial rulers are moderates, somewhere down the line, the extremists or radicals would seize the power. We had seen it happening all over the world. Our neighboring nation, Pakistan is a classic example for this.

In his controversial book "Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat" Peter Hammond has explained how Muslims behave according to their percentage strength of the total population of the country.

Islamization begins when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their religious privileges.

When politically correct, tolerant, and culturally diverse societies agree to Muslim demands for their religious privileges, some of the other components tend to creep in as well.

Here's how it works.

As long as the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will be for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens. This is the case in:

United States -- Muslim 0.6%
Australia -- Muslim 1.5%
Canada -- Muslim 1.9%
China -- Muslim 1.8%
Italy -- Muslim 1.5%
Norway -- Muslim 1.8%

At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. This is happening in:

Denmark -- Muslim 2%
Germany -- Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom -- Muslim 2.7%
Spain -- Muslim 4%
Thailand -- Muslim 4.6%

From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply. This is occurring in:

France -- Muslim 8%
Philippines -- Muslim 5%
Sweden -- Muslim 5%
Switzerland -- Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands -- Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago -- Muslim 5.8%

At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the entire world.

When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions. In Paris , we are already seeing car-burnings. Any non-Muslim action offends Islam, and results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam , with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam. Such tensions are seen daily, particularly in Muslim sections, in:

Guyana -- Muslim 10%
India -- Muslim 13.4%
Israel -- Muslim 16%
Kenya -- Muslim 10%
Russia -- Muslim 15%

After reaching 20%, nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as in:

Ethiopia -- Muslim 32.8%

At 40%, nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as in:

Bosnia -- Muslim 40%
Chad -- Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon -- Muslim 59.7%

From 60%, nations experience unfettered persecution of non-believers of all other religions (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels, such as in:

Albania -- Muslim 70%
Malaysia -- Muslim 60.4%
Qatar -- Muslim 77.5%
Sudan -- Muslim 70%

After 80%, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide, as these nations drive out the infidels, and move toward 100% Muslim, such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in:

Bangladesh -- Muslim 83%
Egypt -- Muslim 90%
Gaza -- Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia -- Muslim 86.1%
Iran -- Muslim 98%
Iraq -- Muslim 97%
Jordan -- Muslim 92%
Morocco -- Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan -- Muslim 97%
Palestine -- Muslim 99%
Syria -- Muslim 90%
Tajikistan -- Muslim 90%
Turkey -- Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates -- Muslim 96%

100% will usher in the peace of 'Dar-es-Salaam' -- the Islamic House of Peace. Here there's supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word, such as in:

Afghanistan -- Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia -- Muslim 100%
Somalia -- Muslim 100%
Yemen -- Muslim 100%

Unfortunately, peace is never achieved, as in these 100% states the most radical Muslims intimidate and spew hatred, and satisfy their blood lust by killing less radical Muslims, for a variety of reasons.

With India, the problem is staring at face with many incidents reported from Kashmir, Assam, Mumbai. The case of Kashmir, Assam are solid examples of demographic seize. The exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the late 80s and now the constant violence unleashed from illegal Bangladeshi Muslims on the native Assamese can be case studies for the demographic seize and the usurping nature of Islam. Rather than turning blind-eye towards these issues, the issue needs to be addressed head on. Else, mark these words - there are many would-be Kashmirs waiting to erupt like Kerala, Assam, West Bengal where radical Islam is gaining a strong foothold. The time is to act now rather than regretting after reaching the point of no return!

Life in 140 characters

No, i never imagined it before i entered this zone. It was not 'just-another' social networking site. It beat my imagination.Yes, i am talking about Twitter and my experience in it for just over half an year. Social networking is something that i always admired for host of reasons apart from entertainment and networking.

 Twitter is the perhaps the first and the most popular site to introduce the concept of micro-blogging. The restriction of 140 characters is obviously inspired by SMS. Just over 6 years of its creation, the effect the twitter has brought about is really amazing. Every celebrity worth his salt would have an account in twitter and facebook.

 Though facebook and twitter are essentially social networking sites, there are many differences when it comes to the actual usage. Facebook is more towards entertainment but whereas twitter is more towards information. Your identity hardly matters in twitter but not so in facebook. Someone differentiated them pretty well stating "In facebook who you are is more important than what you say, but in twitter it's just the opposite". So, you can see many people with concealed identitities garnering a lot of followers because they are saying the right things despite their unknown identities.

 When any news erupts, no social media reacts as swiftly as twitter. If one has his area of interest, and knows whom to follow, he can get a hell lot of information in that field. This has been my experience so far. Even the news that main stream media blacks out for various reasons can be found in twitter. So, if you are an infomaniac, this is the place for you. You'll have a lot of like minded people and there can be great many discussions.

 One more positive i have found out of twitter is that i have found many good bloggers who are way better read and way better informed than the mainstream writers that we daily encounter in the newspapers. Through twitter, they are able to convey some important things to wider audience. Twitter has given them some considerable fan following as well. Till date, i have read many good blogs of many people. I wouldn't have known about those blogs if not for twitter. (In the near future,I intend to write about some of the good bloggers that i have encountered. So, I am not going into the details here).

 There are many other reasons to admire twitter. In my opinion it's impeding the fanatic pace of mainstream media which was/is peddling lies all the way. This is no mean task. That's why you see them cry foul in twitter that rightists (or 'Internet Hindus' as they are fondly named!) have taken control over twitter. This,all the way comfortably forgetting that the communists and pseudo-secularists have hijacked the whole nation and taking it systematically to the dogs. All these years, the main stream media had no challenges. With the advent of twitter and many other social networking sites, they no more can lie through their teeth.

I only wish social media in general & twitter in particular grows from strength to strength because mainstream media has more or less failed in carrying the responsibility of being the fourth pillar of democracy. I fervently hope twitter is here to stay and for good!

My Books Review: June '12

1) Quantum Mystery- This book is written by Rajat Chandra, a physicist and is published by National book trust of India. It is a short book of just over 100 pages which outlines the circumstances that led to the discovery of quantum physics and all the people responsible for its evolution as a subject. A random  excerpt from the book which speaks about the enormous time that has elapsed in the past: “Suppose the whole history of the universe is shrunk to one year, from midnight January 1 to midnight December 31(present). Then the solar system is born around 1st of September. The dinosaurs die out around the noon of December 30. The first direct ancestors of mankind, the hominids, appear around 9 p.m of December 31 and the recorded history of mankind begins just 10 seconds ago. “ 

The book enumerates the success and failure of classical physics in the beginning. Classical physics that’s propounded by Newton, Einstein, and Maxwell is very successful in explaining all the phenomenon of macroscopic world. But the laws of classical physics fail miserably in the microscopic world comprising atoms, molecules, electrons, atomic nuclei and light.

Many important theories that fall under quantum mechanics are briefly discussed like: Uncertainty principle, Bose-Einstein condensation, Schrödinger’s cat paradox, Bohm’s interpretation of quantum mechanics, Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen paradox and Bell’s theorem.

Quantum mechanics sometimes defies common sense the way we understand the word common sense, it defies logic. The theory of quantum mechanics has many spiritual, philosophical implications than any other theories. The theory hasn’t got complete acceptance. But, it is very much successful in accounting for the phenomenon of microscopic world. The book successfully outlines the theory of quantum mechanics.

2) Understanding Islam Through Hadis- This book of Ram Swarup briefly introduces the main ahadis (“Sayings” or”Traditions”, Singular- Hadis) to the readers. The main sources of Islam are two: Quran and Hadis. The Muslims believe Quran to be revelation of god to Muhammad and Hadis, all that he did or said. Hadis is more important than Quran as it is the most important single source of Islamic laws & practices. 

The subject matters that are discussed in Hadis are diverse. Like Iman(Faith), Salat(Prayer), taharah(purification), Al-Nikah(marrriage), Al-Talaq (divorse),Zakat(poor tax), sawm(fast), and hajj (pilgrimage), Al-Imara(government), Tauba(repentance), Munafiqin(hypocrites); also on Jihad(holy war), al-anfal(war booty), and khums(the holy fifth),on punishment, food, drink, women, slaves, ablution, toilet and many more.

The main sources from which the contents of this book are taken: Sahih Muslim, Sahih Bukhari, Sirat Rasul Allah, Tarikh Tabari ; all the sources are considered to be authentic in the Muslim world. So, there can be no question about the authenticity of the works. This book is useful for all who are interested in knowing the real concepts of Jihad, Talaq and many others. Since Islam stands on two pillars: Quran and Hadith (Sunnah also forms part of it), if you know both of them, you’ve almost known all of Islam.

3) Connect the Dots- Be it Prem Ganapathy of Dosa Plaza, or Ganesh Ram of Veta, all the entrepreneurs that are featured in this book have one factor in common: All these started their respective ventures right from the scratch and without having any professional business degrees like MBAs they made their ventures successful. This is Rashmi Bansal’s second book about successful entrepreneurs of India after ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’. While the first book is the success stories about those who had their MBAs from IIM-A, this one is about those who did not have any business degree. 

Most of the people who are featured in this book neither had any clear-cut plans for their future nor any burning desire to succeed. But still when time came, somehow they made it. They made opportunity meet the preparedness and thus got lucky. This can be an inspiring series of tales for all the would-be entrepreneurs giving them hope and delivering the message for them ‘it’s never too late’!

The three world conquerors, their doctrines

As Koenraad Elst & a few others clearly observed, there are three world conquerors that have ambitions which will be satisfied only when the world becomes theirs. The three world conquerors are Communism, Christianity and Islam. Though their ideologies and modus operandi may differ, they travel towards the same goal: total world conquest; and they will not rest until their stated goal is reached. Although one can discount the effect of communism over the world compared to the other two owing to the collapse of Soviet Union and failed states which had embraced communist ideology, it still has not died totally. Certain offshoots of communism still persist strongly especially in India. Their history and effects are too elaborate to be discussed in a book let alone a blogpost. I try to touch them at least superficially.

Communism

Though the idea of communism can’t be traced back to one particular era or one particular individual, communism found concrete shape from the theories of Marx and Engels. Though the words socialism and communism are used interchangeably, there is a difference between socialism and communism. Socialism is just a transitional phase on the road to communism. The aim of communism is to create a class-less society which is based on common ownership. Communism theory says every society has to pass through five stages of development: class-less primitive society, feudalism, capitalism, socialism and communism.[1]

No nation, no master, no class: This is the stated goal of communists. There will be no classes at the culmination of communism. The power is equally distributed among the masses; so there is no master. The entire world would have embraced the idea. So, there are no divisions among the nations. Communists defined peace as the lack of opposition; thus peace could only be attained once everyone had surrendered and fallen under the control of the World-Wide Communist State. Everyone will consume according to their needs not for their greed. This is the ideal propounded by Marx.[2] Sounds pretty good! But, it’s utopian, and hence impractical.

The main aim of the communists is to seize power of the state. They never sway away from their stated goal. They plan meticulously and execute the plans with mathematical certainty. The utopian world that’s envisaged by communism has beckoned many intellectuals to embrace the ideology. So, even today most of the people who are branded as intellectuals have a tilt towards leftist ideology. Especially in India, most of the intellectual sphere is ruled by communists.

If people voluntarily take up the idea of communism, it may create a beautiful world. If it is enforced, it is nothing short of tyranny. So, naturally the states which are under the rule of communism are totalitarian. Even today, most of the human rights violations all over the world are reported from either communist countries or Islamic countries.

As far as India is concerned, communists have hijacked the intellectual, public discourse. They hold key positions so that they can twist and turn the institutions of national importance according to their whims and fancies. All the terrorist organizations like Maoists, Naxals or ULFA are all inspired from the grand idea of communism. With the fall of Soviet Union, communism has got a death blow. But still, it hasn’t perished.

Islam

The youngest of the Semitic religions, Islam was founded in 7th century in Arabia. Like Judaism and Christianity, it is also a revealed religion. In all the revealed religions, it is mandatory to believe in god as well as in his prophet to be able to get any rewards. Prophet Muhammad claimed that he was the prophet chosen by the god Allah for the benefit of the entire humanity and he received the messages of Allah through Angel Gabriel. He put himself in the line of Abraham, Jesus, Moses and the likes. But Muhammad abrogated all the previous prophets including Jesus and claimed he was the last prophet send by god for the benefit of humanity. A close study of life of Muhammad shows us how he intelligently maneuvered ignorant Arabs and built an empire of Islam.

Islam is more of a set of beliefs and political ideology masquerading as religion than a religion in the real sense. A close look at Quran and Hadith reveals the true nature of Islam. The intention is to conquer the whole world. It is similar to communism in its intention but it is with god-attached. For all the heinous acts that Muslims commit all over the world in the name of Islam there is sanction from the god. So, moral dilemmas seldom arise in them. Islam divides the whole world into Dar-al-harb(Land of war) and Dar-al-salaam (Land of peace).[3] Dar-al-harb is the place where Islam is not the official religion. So, war should never stop in those places until and unless it is completely converted to Islam. Then alone it becomes land of peace, Dar-al-salaam. And it is the duty of every Muslim to take part in this ‘holy’ mission in some way or the other. The concept of Jihad is central to the Islamic doctrine and is considered to be the most sacred.

Islam, the imperialism: The imperial nature of Islam is such that all the converts have to change their lives to fit into the Islamic mould. It places the idea of Arab, Arabic culture (Islamic culture) and Arabic language as superior to all the rest and expects all the followers to emulate.[3] It is so much of an exclusivist ideology that it intends to completely obliterate the rest. So, when the countries were conquered and converted by Islamists, their ancient culture and history are stamped out of their lives. So, they never merely conquered a country but destroyed its history and civilizations. For instance: Iran and Egypt had great civilizations going back thousands of years, but they have been totally wiped out. This is what’s happened to Afghanistan in recent times and also what the Jihadists are trying to do to Kashmir.[4]

Indian context: India being the biggest land of polytheists became their targets in as early as 10th century. It is sanctioned in Quran to destroy the places of worship of other religions and to build mosques in their places. It was faithfully implemented in India as well. Millions of people were killed, converted and temples were destroyed. Of course, our ‘eminent’ historians invent economic reasons for this plundering of temples. Although economic reasons were a part of it, the biggest reason was religious one. Nalanda, Vaishali, Sarnath, Vikramashila, Takshashila, and many more centers of learning which attracted students from all over the world were mercilessly destroyed by the Islamic bigots. But amidst all these we have to acknowledge among all the nations and civilizations that Islamists have attacked, India alone remains unconquered till date. So, they consider India as an unfinished chapter in their global Jihad expeditions.

A commentator writing by the pen name KaffirPagan wrote about the entire history of conquest of Islam in India so succinctly and beautifully in the website Jihadwatch.com of Robert Spenser.

"It has been coming at us for 1400 years in Islamic tides that have ebbed and flowed. And our boundaries are still receding.
Christian Byzantium- Syria, Jordan, Turkey have been lost to the enemy camp. Also, North Africa has been lost by Christendom.
Similarly Hindus have lost Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia and Malaysia. Buddhists lost all of Central Asia (The Central Asian republics- the Stans). Persian Zoroastrians lost their entire possession- Iran.
At least we still have India and Europe proper. But do we? The Muslims in both places continue to multiply disproportionately and encroach more ground.India had a beautiful civilization before the newly converted Turkish, Persian hoards goaded on by their Arab masters with promises of booty and women of Hindustan completely wrecked India. They raped India again, again and again for centuries.
According to the words of Islamic court chroniclers that often accompanied the Muslim warlords-- "Hindu civilization was wrecked, ground to dust, the inhabitants of Hindoostan became like atoms scattered..." This theme of wanton and cruel pillage reoccurs again and again and again from 800 AD till 1700 AD. It is a telling story of how civilization can be overwhelmed by barbarians hovering on its borders.
The Muslim barbarians appropriated not only India's riches, but also its accumulated knowledge for themselves.And no, the modern number system, the decimal, the concept of zero, arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, geometry, chess, astronomy, medicine, speculative philosophy, metaphysics were not "invented" by Arabs. They were stolen from India and claimed for the Ummah. Ditto- Greek and Roman philosophies.
But at least the Europeans were aware of their own heritage and reclaimed it back. Why? Because Europe was not fully conquered, only partially ravaged till Anatolia, Iberia and the Balkans. The rest of Europe was relatively free from the scourge of Islam.But India? Not so fortunate. The entire land which was India (which consists of present day Pakistan, Afghanistan) was enslaved by the Mohammedans and that too for 800 years! The land that gave birth to the most "progressive, creative and imaginative civilization known to man," according to the words of a Western scholar, was not only physically, but also mentally yoked to Islamic slavery for 8 millenniums. No wonder that Indians are neither aware of the achievements of their ancestors, nor are proud of their heritage.
It is the same India that had the biggest universities of the world of its time like Nalanda (Bihar, India) and Taxila (present day Rawalpindi-Pakistan) where students from all over the world: China, Greece, Persia traveled to learn sciences, speculative metaphysics, philosophy, economics, mathematics. Some have said that noted Greeks like Archimedes himself came to India to study geometry. India was also been China's teacher for centuries, and in the words of a Chinese general-- "India has conquered China for a millennium without sending a single soldier over the Himalayas." This empire of ideas, of learning, of knowledge was reduced to the pitiful state of today because of a long and dark intervening period of Islamic plunder.
But the Hindus never gave in, nor gave up. They retreated into the forests and into the inaccessible Himalayan Mountains with whatever memories of their civilization they could salvage. The Hindu population in the middle ages decreased by 80 million! Many were slaughtered, many died of hunger and disease when transported over the Hindu Kush mountains (literally means "killer of Hindus") to be sold as slaves in the bazaars of Central Asia and Baghdad, many died of famine when the entire socio-economic structure of the land was shattered.
But I am mighty glad that despite all the unimaginable sufferings the collective will of our ancestors didn't sink and they did not join the enemy ranks. I am mighty glad the unassailable sword of Islam the overpowered the Persians, Byzantines, North Africans and Central Asia Turks was blunted in India.
Otherwise, today I too would be the nemesis of civilization, I too would be calling for the triumph of Islam, I too would be the enemy like the converted Albanians, Persians, Syrians and Turks."

If someone daydreams about the end of Islamic terrorism, they have to remember that Islam is fundamentally unchangeable. In the words of Geert Wilders, a controversial politician from Netherlands (controversial because of his open criticism of Islam) "There might be moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam. Islam will never change, because it is built on two rocks that are forever, two fundamental beliefs that will never change, and will never alter. First, there is the Quran, Allah's personal word, uncreated, forever, with orders that need to be fulfilled regardless of place or time. And second, there is al-insal al-kamil, the perfect man, Muhammad the role model, whose deeds are to be imitated by all Muslims. And since Muhammad was a warlord and a conqueror we know what to expect. Islam means submission, so there cannot be any mistake about its goal. That's a given. It's a fact"!

Christianity

Compared to the previous two, Christians operate in a softer but a very organized manner. Christians have prophet in the form of Jesus and they believe him to be the chosen one of god among all men & was sent to earth to elevate humanity. The principal founders of Christianity include Peter, James, Matthew and John who were all the disciples of Jesus. As with any other Semitic religion, Christianity is an exclusive path.

Christians sincerely believe Jesus to be the son of god and salvation can be attained only by following him. The ones that don’t follow him are doomed. So, to ‘save’ the souls from the doom, they do religious conversions. They do it zealously and they think it as a pious work. Perhaps the proverbial ‘missionary zeal’ originated from the Christian missionaries.

Theologically, Christianity had a tendency towards intolerance, but had to adopt the policy of "live and let live" because in its formative period, it was but one of the numerous sects in the pluralist Roman Empire.[5] But much unlike Islam, it seldom directly plunders civilizations but attacks very core of civilizations and over a period of time it uproots them. Christianity has contribution in destroying Inca, Mayan civilizations. The unassailable Roman Empire could not stand the incoming wave of Christianity. Though there were many reasons for the downfall of Roman Empire, Christianity was a main factor.[6] Many indigenous African cultures were destroyed when a large part of Africa was converted to Christianity. There is an African proverb which captures the pulse of that point “"When the white man first came to this land, we had the land and they had the bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them again, we had the bible and the white man had the land."”

India, a natural target: when the European invaders like Portuguese, Dutch, and British came to India, they all came with missionaries to ‘save’ millions of souls. India was the largest pagan-land and naturally attracted all the missionaries who were interested in saving souls and planting crosses everywhere they could.

Even to this day, India remains the best destination, an attractive location for ‘soul-harvesting’. The reason being a large part of non-Christian population resides in the lands of India, China and all the Islamic republics. In all the Islamic countries and communist China, the missionary activities and hence the religious conversions are completely banned. So, thus India became a natural destination and target for the soul harvesters. And they have successfully harvested many souls in North-Eastern parts of India, tribal areas, Southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

They are doing a few things covertly, a few things unabashedly. The Joshua Project,a mega-plan they have made for soul-harvesting is really telling of their evangelical activities. They have made a detailed plan for soul-harvesting across the world. They have segregated people by their religion, language, ethnicity and various other parameters.They have separate plans for each segment of people. The whole exercise looks like a huge project of some multi-national company.The project is global, well-networked, well-funded. Needless to say, the main targets in India would be tribals and backward castes.This is just a tip of the iceberg.

In November 1999, the then Pope John Paul II visited India and he did not hide any intentions when he made the statement “Just as in the first millennium the Cross was planted on the soil of Europe, and in the second on that of the Americas and Africa, we can pray that in the Third Christian Millennium a great harvest of faith will be reaped in this vast and vital continent” He was referring to Asia. With china out of equation, the only largest remaining country is India.

Conclusion: Even if the rest of the groups except these three get obliterated from the face of the earth, these three conquerors would still fight among themselves for supremacy. (For instance, Muslims are persecuted in communist china; communists were persecuted in Iran; historical crusades between Muslims and Christians.) As far as India is considered, all three are very much present in India. Though each one is the nemesis of the other, the common animosity towards Hinduism brings them all together. All are fervently pursuing their respective missions, and have damaged the civilization significantly but I still believe India’s soul is intact.

References

1) Marx and Engels, The German ideology

2) Karl Marx, The communist manifesto

3) Anwar Shaikh, Islam-The Arab imperialism

4) Navaratna Rajaram, An article by name Tortured souls create twisted history

5) Koenraad Elst, Negationism in India

6) Edward Gibbon, The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire

My Books Review: May '12

1) Eminent Historians – This work of Arun Shourie is an eye-opener for all to the wrongdoings of the leftist historians of India from decimating the institutions of national importance to tampering the history. Arun Shourie’s style of writing is described to be based on rigorous analysis and meticulous research. You have all the reason to vouch for it once you’ve completed the book.

The gist of the book is given in these lines: “Tarnish every person, Institution, Period, Confidence...Ascribe tolerance, magnanimity to the intolerant...Portray the inclusive, Open tradition as the one out to swallow others, and the exclusivist, totalitarian ideology as the ideology of broad-mindedness, of peace, tolerance...Denounce as 'communal' anyone who demands proof...Blame victims for the consequence of the ideology of the oppressors...Suppress the role of comrades in aiding imperial rulers...Tarnish leaders, reformers who led the nationalist movement...All the while control institutions, hog patronage, exercise power, and have a good time...”! They have denied the idea of India, Hinduism and have shown ruthless invaders (who were actually religious fanatics) as emancipators, they have employed their intellectual faculties to whitewash the Islamic rule in India which was characterized by loot, violence and conversion all in large scale, they have hushed up all the facts of communists who played treacherous role in the freedom struggle with covertly allying with the British. They have belittled the ancient religion of India, used scorn profusely wherever they can to describe ancient India.   

            What the Marxist historians have made an institute like ICHR is given in detail by their partisanship and nepotism by taking Ayodhya issue as an example. A huge amount of public fund is misused by the eminent historians in the name of big projects which are never completed. Shourie gives various instances of tens of historians with many high sounding projects but are never completed. Their various techniques of falsifying history and countering the opinions of others are listed with solid examples.

            In 1989, West Bengal board of secondary education had issued instructions that “Muslim rule should never attract any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders should not be mentioned”. The instruction was faithfully implemented and thus history was distorted. This is just an example. The Marxist or communists historians have been doing such mischievous acts for decades. It’s just that their nexus and network are so strong that they attract no trouble. 

“In regard to our religion, the trick is threefold. The textbooks denigrate religion, attributing to it the evils which it serves the progressives’ purpose of highlight. Second, in each of these instances the examples they give are linked by them to Hinduism. Third, among religions, Islam is always presented as the one, progressive, emancipatory religion. Of course, the final emancipation comes in the form of the soviet revolution of 1917! ”

            They have bequeathed the legacy of Macaulay’s education. What if Marx, Macaulay and Missionaries come together? How would their design be? Simple: “Make them ashamed of the things that they revere- their god, their scriptures, their language, Sanskrit; and make them hate the one group which has been charged with the task of continuing their religion and culture.” If we see the present day India, we have to admit their design has been greatly successful.

            The party line remains the same of the school: “There is no Hinduism, it is brahminism; brahminism equals intolerance and persecution – of Buddhists, Jains and of course the Shudras; Islam equals peace, equality, brotherhood, the ascent towards monotheism; the left, means equality, freedom and everything nice; revolution means the rule of workers and peasants!” dissecting many of their assertions and proving them false, Shourie writes “Each of these assertions is a blatant falsehood. But these historians, having, their control of institutions, set the standards of intellectual correctness, the one who questions the falsehoods, even though he does so by citing the writings of the best known Islamic historians of those very times, he is the one who is in the wrong.”

            To counter the fact that Muslims destroyed thousands of temples of Hindus, a lie of Hindus destroying Buddhist viharas is invented. ‘A lie repeated many times becomes a truth’ is standard technique used in the Marxist school of thought. The lie is completely exposed in the book by citing many works. Before the advent of Islam, Buddhism was the religion of Bactria, Parthis, Afghanistan, Gandhar. It was Islam which destroyed Buddhism in all these places.  

            The eminent historians take liberty in denigrating the Indian gods by saying like ‘Indra is amoral’, ‘Lord Krishna has rather questionable personal record’, ‘and Lord Shiva is just a development of phallic cults’. They assume Hindus could not have done anything worthwhile and original and develop their theses in those lines. According to them even true geniuses like Aryabhata, Varahamihira are unoriginal. Their contempt is reserved only for Hindu culture and Hindu culture alone.

            Engels propounded a theory according to which all the societies should pass through these stages: classless primitive society; slave economy, feudalism, capitalism, socialism and finally communism and he said it was a universal law that no country or society was an exception to this sequence. A few writings of Lenin say that all the spheres of the society like economic, spiritual, political, religious can be understood and analysed by having the aforesaid sequence of development in mind. So, our eminent historians of India who are well-versed with the writings of Marx, Engels and Lenin have religiously tried to see our history through the lenses of class and class struggle.  This sometimes gets preposterous when they try to give explanation of concepts like Bhakti, karma and reincarnation through class, class struggle and oppression. But that’s how they are conditioned to see the entire society, history and in short the whole world. That’s why communism is sometimes called quasi-religious.

            In the next part Shourie contrasts the writings of Soviet historians and our own historians on Ancient India. He conclusively proves that soviet historians are more objective and loyal to true history than our own eminences.

            “These intellectuals have over years captured an array of institutions and professions. Through this dominion they have controlled public discourse in general. They have set the intellectual fashion; they have determined what is politically correct and what is not. The effects are all around us.” Though their number is not great, they have managed to occupy key positions in journalism, history, arts, theatre . They decide what book should be reviewed in their newspaper and who should review it needless to say the person who advocates their lines would be given such an opportunity. In this way they have hijacked the entire political discourse.

In the concluding remarks, Shourie proposes the way out, what needs to be done to control the damage that’s already been done and not to further that damage.

This is the first ever full scale book that I read of Arun Shourie. His style of writing is indeed a marriage of extensive research and rigorous analysis. It’s a highly recommended book which should be read by all who wishes to know the misdoings of our eminent historians, the techniques that they employ, the ramifications of their deeds and the way out.

2) Chitadanta - It’s a kannada novel written by K.N. Ganeshiah. It’s a suspense thriller which revolves around a murder but explores many historical incidents like Alexander’s invasion, Buddha’s tooth mystery etc. For further details go to 
http://blogesha.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/%E0%B2%9A%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%A4%E0%B2%BE%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%82%E0%B2%A4/

My Books Review: April '12

1) The intelligent investor: This is a classic book on value-investing written by Benjamin Graham who is called as the father of value-investing as well as the dean of security analysis. There are many approaches to investing but the investment based on the inherent value of the business was pioneered and perfected by Ben Graham. The approach of Graham has stood the test of time over decades surviving the worst bear markets of stock market history. The book was first published in the 40s and subsequently edited by Graham till his death in the 70s. This particular edition which I’ve read has commentaries by financial journalist Jason Zweig. 

The book in its outset explains a very important but often neglected point of investment: the difference between investment and speculation. Then starts building methodically the approach, discipline required for value investor. The approach is explained through various historical data, companies. 

It explains meticulously all the factors that are involved in investment process. Graham does analysis with microscopic details. Graham’s theory was well known in investment circles all over the world but was made popular by his most famous student Warren buffet. 

The book has its positives in its meticulous and comprehensive approach to value investing but at times gets boring when it goes into the details of US stock market history. An Indian version of the book explaining the concepts of Graham with Indian stock market history can be useful for Indian investors.

The concepts that are explained in the book require some basic knowledge in finance and investing. A layman who is new to the world of investment will find it difficult to stomach the concepts presented. This is a single, most reliable work on value investing that can’t be missed by the people from world of finance in general and investment in particular.


2) The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order: This is an important work of Samuel Huntington which attempted to explain geo-politics in the post-cold war world. Ideology formed the central role in international relations in the cold-war era. But after the collapse of Soviet Union and ending of cold war, the place of ideology will be supplanted by culture and civilizations. Thus the book predicts there will be clash of civilization & Global politics will be multi-polar and multi-civilizational. 

The author defines what civilization is and recognizes five major civilizations in the present world: Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Islamic, and Western. The west rose to prominence in the 16th century and the author categorically says it’s not due to any superiority of its civilization. In his own words “The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence”. But there can be no denying the fact that the west is the cradle of majority of political ideologies of the world like: liberalism, socialism, anarchism, corporatism, Marxism, communism, social democracy, conservatism, nationalism, fascism, and Christian democracy. The common denominator of all these are they are the product of western civilization. 

For a universal civilization to emerge there should be a universal language and universal religion. That possibility looks unlikely. It predicts that by the about the third decade of the 21st century, Islam will be the dominant religion of the world displacing western Christianity. The reason being, Christianity spreads primarily by conversion, Islam by conversion and reproduction. It also predicts that by the middle of 21st century, the western grip on the world economy will be over. The main civilizations that are positioned to challenge the west are Confucian and Islamic.

All the civilizations should necessarily have core state which can lead all other nations of that civilization. “Islam, Latin America, and Africa lack core states. Islamist fundamentalism rejects the nation state in favor of the unity of Islam just as Marxism rejected it in favor of the unity of the international proletariat.” The future fault lines are likely to arise from interaction of “Western arrogance, Islamic intolerance, and Sinic assertiveness.”

The role of religion in the fault line war is emphasized by using the Islamic example (Afghan-Soviet war of the ‘79). The role of religion is downplayed by myopic seculars, and those who want to be politically correct. “In the end, the Soviets were defeated by three factors they could not effectively equal or counter: American technology, Saudi money, and Muslim demographics and zeal”

Then comes one of the most discussed and debated part of the book: The incidence of Islam’s bloody borders. “While at the macro or global level of world politics the primary clash of civilizations is between the West and the rest, at the micro or local level it is between Islam and the others.” It quotes many examples in this context: The situation in Bosnia, Kosovo, Cyprus (Muslim Turks and Orthodox Greeks), Chechnya, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Middle East, Sudan & a few others.

Then, the possible causes of Muslim conflict propensity are analyzed. A few of them are:

1) Islam has from the start been a religion of the sword and that it glorifies military virtues.
2) Islam originated among “warring Bedouin nomadic tribes” and this violent origin is stamped in the foundation of Islam.
3) Muhammad himself is remembered as a hard fighter and a skillful military commander. (No one would say this about Christ or Buddha.)
4) The doctrines of Islam, it is argued, dictate war against unbelievers.

5) The Koran and other statements of Muslim beliefs contain few prohibitions on violence, and a concept of nonviolence is absent from Muslim doctrine and practice.
6) Even more than Christianity, Islam is an absolutist faith. It merges religion and politics and draws a sharp line between those in the Dar al-Islam and those in the Dar al-harb. As a result, Confucians, Buddhists, Hindus, Western Christians, and Orthodox Christians have less difficulty adapting to and living with each other than any one of them has in adapting to and living with Muslims.
7) From its origin in Arabia, the spread of Islam across northern Africa and much of the Middle East and later to central Asia, the Subcontinent, and the Balkans brought Muslims into direct contact with many different peoples, who were conquered and converted, and the legacy of this process remains.

On an ending note, the book predicts the war based on civilization between different civilizations, most likely involving Muslims on one side and non-Muslims on the other. The book envisages a hypothetical global civilizational war between China & the US, and between India & Pakistan. The US, Europe, Russia and India would engage in a global struggle against China, Japan and most of Islam. The global power would shift from the west to the east and then towards south. The great beneficiary would be India.

The cycle of civilization is explained beautifully in this paragraph: “When civilizations first emerge, their people are usually vigorous, dynamic, brutal, mobile, and expansionist. They are relatively uncivilized. As the civilization evolves it becomes more settled and develops the techniques and skills that make it more Civilized. As the competition among its constituent elements tapers off and a universal state emerges, the civilization reaches its highest level of Civilization, its “golden age,” with a flowering of morality, art, literature, philosophy, technology, and martial, economic, and political competence. As it goes into decay as a civilization, its level of Civilization also declines until it disappears under the onslaught of a different surging civilization with a lower level of Civilization.”

To avoid major inter-civilizational wars, the core states of each civilizations should stop meddling in conflicts with other civilizations, the author advocates. Also, an international order based on civilizations is the surest safeguard against world war.

This book advocates a model based on civilizations for the interactions in global politics. But the truth is that as many experts say, global politics is too complicated to be captured by any single model.

My Books Review: March '12

Sankara-Digvijaya – This traditional biography of Adi Shankaracharya is written by the saint Madhava-Vidyaranya. The original is in Sanskrit and is translated into English by Swami Tapasyananda of R.K.Mutt. In a rather lengthy introduction to the biography, the author has faithfully put forth the problem in elucidating the life of Shankaracharya owing to different versions of biography, problem in ascertaining correct dates of events, accuracy of some facts believed and so on. 

Shankaracharya is believed to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva & many people that come in the life of Shankaracharya are mythological beings incarnated as humans in order to establish Dharma which faced threat from perverse doctrines of the day. The author maintains thus stated position throughout the book. 

Shankaracharya’s birth, his embracing of sannyasa, his meeting with his guru Govindapada, the incident with the untouchable, his commentaries on various Vedic texts, arguments with Mandana, Bhatta Bhaskara and a few more, his triumph over many scholars across the country, establishments of various mutts across the countries, the incident of parakaaya-pravesha, the coming of some disciples, accession to Sharada-peetha are lucidly presented.

The series of argument between Shankaracharya and Mandana(follower of Vedic ritualism), Shankaracharya and Bhatta Bhaskara (exponent of Bhedabheda doctrine) stand out among all the arguments. It’s a great exposition of intellect, reasoning and vast scholarship of both the parties. It’s a sure feast for the lovers of philosophy.

In the whole book, different schools of philosophy like Samkhya, Nyaya(school of Gautama), Vaisheshika, Purvamimamsa(School of Jaimini), Charvaaka, Jaina, Bauddha(realism and Nihilism) , school of Kanada are briefly discussed.

If we take out the mythological cloud surrounding Shankaracharya and see him as a human being, we can’t help but to respect his colossal intellect that at a very young age had done some near impossible tasks. He’s unarguably one of the greatest philosophers, scholars ever to walk on the face of Earth. The book in its concluding remarks, quintessentially describes him “The life of Shankara makes a strong impression of contraries. He is a philosopher and a poet, a savant and a saint, a mystic and a religious reformer. Such diverse gifts did he possess that different images present themselves, if we try to recall his personality…There have been few minds more universal than his ”!

Troy! And the train of thoughts that unfolded

A few days back I watched the movie Troy in its director’s cut version. To narrate the story shortly-it’s a story of war between the Trojans and Greeks for the queen of Spartans (Helen) who is abducted by the Trojans. I really loved the visual spectacle that the makers were able to create. Though it was criticized by many for its flaws like historical inaccuracies, poor acting by a few etc. it is one of the magnum opus projects post-2000. As a hard-case movie buff, I was discussing this with my cousin, yet another movie buff! 

Having seen many historical movies in Hollywood, I wondered why they didn’t make any significant movies about India despite the fact that India is the only continuous, oldest civilization on the earth which is replete with colorful history. Even if one were to discount the mythological stories of India still there was an ample scope of making great historical movies out of India. When you have a history of more than 5000 years, there ought to be many great historical characters, instances. For this my cousin nonchalantly replied that westerners or the people of the so-called 'first world' don’t want to see India as a land of heroes or in anyway positive (yes there are a few earnest movies like City of Joy but the numbers are very few).

There was truth in his statement. The first world still wants to see India as a land of snake-charmers and soothsayers. To satisfy their appetite for India’s portrayal as chaotic and effete nation, Hollywood churns out movie like Slumdog Millionaire which is so poor that no true Indian can like the unfaithful depiction of India. The makers have done a loathsome job of rag-pickers who have picked all the negatives possible: Drug mafia, human trafficking, prostitution, communal hatred and what not. An art-deprived movie which plays to the gallery by the over-usage of clichés, stereotypes wins Academy award for the best movie category!

Apart from the reason stated before, the other strong reason appears to be the proximity and proclivity that Hollywood has towards the Greek and Roman history. It is true both geographically and culturally. The European philosophy for instance is greatly influenced by the Greek philosophy. So, there is a cultural proximity and that doesn’t exist with India. For the west, India is still the ‘other’. To borrow a phrase from Samuel Huntington, each has been the other’s other.

Samuel Huntington in his landmark book “The clash of civilizations” explains two terms: hard power and soft power. “Hard power is the power to command resting on economic and military strength, and soft power is the ability of a state to get other countries to want what it wants through the appeal of its culture and ideology.” Soft power is power only when it rests on a foundation of hard power.

India as a country never lacked soft power. But soft power becomes a farce when it’s not supported by the hard power. India had both hard power and soft power before the advent of the British (it was the richest country in the world before 16th century). If Roman and Greek empires are remembered even to this day the reason is that the soft power comfortably rested with the foundation of hard power of military might. If the U.S is seen as the world leader today, it is because of its economic and military prowess. As India doesn’t lack soft power, in order to command respect of the west and the rest, India should work on hard power even harder.

My Books Review: February '12

1) Kavalu : The latest novel of  S.L Bhairappa. This talks about the changing value system of Indian society owing to the huge influences of the western societies. For more details, do check 
http://blogesha.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/ನಾನೋದಿದ-ಪುಸ್ತಕ

2) Inspire your child inspire your world: This small book just over 30 pages is a collection of a few questions related to bringing up the children and answers given by Sadhguru to them. In his inimitable style Sadhguru answers the questions emphasizing on inspiration over information, kindling the thirst for knowledge over just earning a living, uniqueness of individual over sickness of competition and so on. It is a good book which brings out many good points in upbringing of children.

My Books Review: January '12

Perhaps one of the most notorious autobiographies ever to be penned down Mein Kamph is an account of Adolf Hitler’s life spanning from his birth to his ascendance to power. It gives a detailed account of the historical views, the prevalent political conditions that existed during the time of First World War and the period after viewed in the lens of Hitler. The original book is in German. It is translated to English by James Murphy.

The book starts by paying homage to twelve martyrs who laid their lives for the National socialistic party. Then it tells the story of Hitler’s birth in Austria, his parents, his love for painting, the relationship between Germany and Austria. Hitler’s intense love for Germany is very evident right from the beginning. A voracious reader he was, he read many books which helped him to form opinions about the political realities of his day and the problem that his nation faced. He forms opinion that there are two evils that are vexing Germany: Marxism and Jews. He has analyzed Marxists very well in some parts but he links Marxists with Jews.

Then he explains about ‘propaganda’, how it should be carried out. There can not be any better person to explain these other than Hitler. As a die-hard racist, he concludes the highest aim of human existence is conservation of race, the Aryan-blood is the purest and the rest of the races are subordinates to the Aryans. He analyses the causes for the defeat of Germany in the WWI, understand the mass psychology of people, devices methods to appeal to them, Then he actively involves himself in politics, builds National Socialistic Party which has a new Weltanschauung (A comprehensive view of the world and human life) amidst various hardships, develops oratory skills, charismatic appeals and ascends to the party leadership position.

In this autobiographical note, Hitler has mentioned everything that he wants to do once he comes to power: the kind of allies that Germany needs to have, the kind of society he intends to build, the emphasis on racism, the need for ethnic cleansing (though the word is not spelled out), everything horrible he has done finds mention or at least have clue in this autobiography.